Supporting Booksellers & Authors

{Update: You can directly support your local bookstores by shopping online with Bookshop. Check out this list of new releases I’m excited to read.}

Most bookstores are closed right now, but they are still shipping books. In fact, many are offering free shipping or deeply discounted shipping rates. When I was traveling on tour for The Newlywed Table, I visited independent bookstores across the country and fell in love with some truly special ones. These places are vital community hubs, run by wonderful people who aren’t trying to make it rich. We need them just like we need restaurants. Aside from buying books, consider purchasing a gift card, which is effectively giving a tiny (but much-needed) loan to one of these small businesses.

Here are my favorite independent bookstores to support right now:

East Bay Booksellers (Oakland)

Omnivore Books (SF)

Book Larder (Seattle)

Vroman’s (LA)

Books Are Magic (Brooklyn)

Kitchen Arts & Letters (NYC)

Powell’s (Portland)

If you’ve been following along with the process of creating The Newlywed Table, then you know that books operate on long timelines. The normal schedule for making a cookbook takes about two years from contract signing to publication day. This means that tons of brilliant authors have worked hard for years on their books that will be published this month. And I know from experience that launching a new book during the best of times is challenging enough. In the coming weeks, I’ll feature some favorite spring 2020 cookbooks. (Please let me know about any recently published books you’ve loved!)